Financial services

The financial services’ sector covers a wide range of actors, with different requests and peculiarities, including banks, payment institutions, payment cards’ networks, asset management firms, financial intermediaries as well as insurance companies.

We are able to meet the needs of each of the sectors’ actors, offering them knowledgeable and useful legal services to enhance their market presence and the overall economy. We are aware that banks’ and intermediaries’ are at the core of the current economic environment, providing fundamental services and funds to the development of traditional and innovative business ideas.

Our team offers an expansive breadth of insight, helping our clients to structure and document transactions that help to provide financing to virtually every industry.

We advise some of the domestic and international top banks and financial institutions, sponsors, debt funds as well as corporations in the banking and finance industry. Being an international law firm allows us to provide our legal advice mainly to multi-national clients, taking care of their compliance with European and internal legislation and of their relationship with the various authorities (the Bank of Italy, the National Commission for Companies and Stock Exchange, the Assurance Supervisory Institute).

We are ahead of our clients’ needs when it comes to the adoption of new procedures and standards, constantly monitoring the different markets’ actors and regulators to understand in advance any potential new trend and tendency.

We act for arrangers, agents, lenders as well as for sponsors and corporations in relation to bilateral and/or syndicated domestic or cross-border acquisition and leveraged finance, real estate finance, project finance, debt capital markets. We have offered our services to the most prominent payment institutions and payment cards’ schemes, in the context of an industry which is at the core of our interest and motivation.

We have advised our clients in complex operations and transactions, providing them with an holistic approach for the evaluation of all the relevant perspectives of every financial operation (including funds, tax and marketability).

Our experience covers the corporate, investments and retail viewpoints of every clients’ business choice, with the aim to provide them with a “one stop shop” to suit all their needs.

Our Italian team has included a cross-sector Financial Services practice since 2014: from being just a start up, it has grown steadily throughout the years having now acquired a widespread recognition across the legal market and the overall industry, as confirmed by the award received by one of the most prominent Italian Legal Directorates (Legalcommunity) in 2017.

Retail banking and financial services

In the current economic environment, retail banking and financial services have become increasingly regulated. The protection of private customers in these sectors has demanded the legislators and the supervisory authorities to adopt a variety of provisions and regulations in order to ensure that any customers’ financial decision is taken without any undue influence and once all the relevant aspects have been clarified to the customer.

Eversheds Sutherland’s Italian lawyers are keen to assist Italian and international clients to orient themselves in the tight regulatory framework that characterizes the sector, both with the assessment of any compliance aspect they may face and during the investigations of any relevant authority, such as the Bank of Italy, the Italian Stock Exchange Commission (CONSOB) and the Italian Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (AGCM).

Wholesale, Commercial and Investment Banks

Investments banks face difficult challenges in the current economy, with the aim to maintain their commitments to clients, regulators and shareholders.

Eversheds Sutherland’s Italian financial services sector is composed of a group of professionals who are best positioned to provide legal advices that protect the clients’ financial interests and reputation and assist them in evaluating the risks associated with each possible corporate, commercial and investment decision.

Asset management and funds

Eversheds Sutherland focuses on asset management and financial services regulation, covering the full spectrum of institutional, retail and corporate aspects of investors’ activities and organization.

We regularly advise our clients on regulatory compliance matters and have an extensive experience in advising investment managers, depositaries and funds, offering a full understanding of the products they offer and of the regulations under which they operate.

We advise funds on a wide range of operations and products, including hedge funds, private equity funds, acquisitions, real estate funds. We are also keen to stay ahead of the clients’ new technologies’ challenges and help them to thrive in the ever-changing economic environment.

Insurance

We assist our insurance clients in every aspect of their activities, from the launch of new products to customers’ claims, from litigations and arbitration proceedings to mergers and acquisitions to the compliance with the sector specific legislation and regulation.

Furthermore, we are also keen to assist insurance comparators’ companies, a business which has become increasingly important for consumers and private customers to orient themselves in the sector and that has therefore drawn the attention of the competent supervisory authorities which have initiated numerous investigations.

Eversheds Sutherland Italy offers a collaborative and integrated approach to sector clients, assisting them in the regulatory compliance and during potential investigations by sector authorities, such as the Italian Insurance Supervisory Authority (IVASS) and the Italian Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (AGCM). Our integration between corporate, litigations and tax lawyers, among others, allows insurance companies to trust our services in complex deals.

Our industry know-how and recognition are key factors for us to quickly grasp clients’ needs and identify issues and opportunities that would have otherwise been missed and to navigate any possible legal challenge.

Payment services

Eversheds Sutherland Italian team has the right experience to guide clients in a wide variety of complex legal issues in the payment services’ and electronic money sectors.

From card payments’ networks, e-money providers and mobile wallets, our team is experienced in all aspects of payment services and payment processing.

Our lawyers are well-prepared to assist payment institutions as well as the other actors that usually act in a payment processes in their compliance with the sector-specific regulatory framework, including the PSD2 Directive and the national transposition legislation, the Strong Customer Authentication rules and with the regulations adopted by the Bank of Italy.

We are well positioned to help our clients in all aspects of their business activity including mergers, acquisitions and strategic relations, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, competition law, consumer protection and litigation.

Banks

Over the last decade, the banking sector has been interested by a wide change in the regulatory environment, both at the European and at the Italian national level. As a consequence, the risks associated with these businesses have certainly increased as well as the need to have a knowledgeable and experienced team of lawyers by your side.

Eversheds Sutherland Italian team has the right set of professionals to offer clients all the advice they need to keep ahead of any legal challenge.

We represent banks in any aspect of their business activities, assessing corporate, competition, employment, finance and tax aspects, among others.

We also represent our clients in the relationships with the supervisory authorities, such as the European Central Bank and the Bank of Italy, and have a longstanding successful experience in advising clients in the fulfilment of the regulatory obligations needed to initiate their activities in Italy (in case of banks originally established abroad) as well as in guiding Italian banks for the provision of their services in foreign EU and third countries.

Private equity

Our Italian lawyers are well experienced in the representation of and assistance to private equity clients including equity institutions, management teams, debt providers and portfolio companies through all stages of the private equity life cycle.

Our main services include formation, organization and structuring of all types of private investment funds, evaluation of investment opportunities, negotiation and documentation of investment transactions, portfolio acquisitions and dispositions, exists form investments, development capital, public to private transactions and debt restructurings.

Accountants

As private professionals, we totally understand the pressures and the challenges accountant firms face.

We can offer to our clients in this sector a wide range of legal services, providing them with a comprehensive set of assistance: from compliance advise to litigation and customers’ claims to alternative dispute resolution.

Furthermore, we are keen to collaborate with them to offer a wider range of services and a broader assessment to any possible common client.